CulturalWiki: A Semantic Map-Based Wiki for Interdisciplinary Collaboration

The use of digital maps capitalizes on the long tradition of using paper maps as mean of communication and learning among people. More than ever, maps are becoming one of the most used metaphors to present concepts and knowledge. This paper presents a wiki infrastructure for map-based information systems’ design that, through an ontology, defines a semantic model able to minimize the problems in communication across interdisciplinary communities by putting together cultural information from different data sources. Using map-oriented solution, the wiki is aimed at enabling intercultural collaboration and learning among all the stakeholders involved in cultural heritage projects. A living lab based on the use of the CulturalWiki framework is described and the results of evaluations are presented

Morphological analysis of the acute effects of cigarette smoke on normal human oral mucosa explants

Cigarette smoke is one of the five leading risk factors for mortality in the world and smoking related lung cancer is the main cause of deaths from cancer in both sexes in the United States. This habit is particularly popular in Western low- and middle- income countries, with about one billion males and 250 million females smoking in the world. Human oral mucosa is the combustion chamber of cigarette, but scanty evidence is available about the early smoke effects. The present work aimed at evaluating from a morphological point of view whole smoke early effects on epithelial intercellular adhesion and keratinocyte terminal differentiation in a three-dimensional model of human oral mucosa. Biopsies of keratinized oral mucosa of healthy non smoking women (n = 5) were collected. After culturing in a Transwell system, one fragment of each biopsy was exposed to the smoke of one single cigarette; the remnant represented the internal control. The distribution of epithelial differentiation markers (keratin-10, K10, and keratin-14, K14, for suprabasal and basal cells respectively), desmosomes (desmoglein-1, desmoglein-3), tight junctions (occludin), adherens junctions (E-cadherin, β-catenin), and apoptotic cells (p53, caspase-3) were evaluated by immunofluorescence. Quantitative analysis of K14 immunolabeling revealed an over expression in the suprabasal layers as early as 3 hours after smoke exposure, without impairment of the epithelial junctional apparatus and apoptosis induction. The present study showed that the early response of the normal human oral mucosa to acute exposure to the smoke of one single cigarette induced K14 expression in suprabasal oral keratinocytes, without impairment of the epithelial junctional apparatus and apoptosis induction, suggesting that the first significant response to cigarette smoke arise from the basal and suprabasal layers of the human oral epithelium. The novelty of the present work consists in the combination of human oral explants with a non hermetic smoke exposure system. The main improvement offered by this setting is the ability of reproducing the cyclic condition by which cigarette smoke normally comes in contact with the oral mucosa. Furthermore, it allows administering simultaneously both gaseous phase and particulate matter of cigarette smoke

Pubblicit\ue0 del gioco d'azzardo

Dopo una sintetica ricognizione dei profili d\u2019indirizzo dell\u2019Unione Europea e dell\u2019evoluzione delle norme nazionali in materia, il presente contributo si sofferma sulle criticita\u300 e sui rischi ancora presenti, evidenziati dall\u2019Autorita\u300 per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM) nella \u201cSegnalazione al Governo\u201d pubblicata subito dopo l\u2019emanazione delle \u201cLinee guida sulle modalita\u300 attuative del divieto di pubblicita\u300 contenuto all\u2019art. 9 del c.d. decreto dignita\u300\u201d, quasi a giustificare i contenuti di queste ultime, che tendono a limitare l\u2019operativita\u300 del divieto assoluto introdotto dall\u2019art. 9, d.l. n. 87/2018. Con un recentissimo nuovo intervento legislativo, contenuto nell\u2019art. 102, d.l. 14 agosto 2020, n. 104 (convertito con modificazioni nella l. 13 ottobre 2020, n. 126 ), il Governo ha cercato di reprimere l\u2019elusione delle norme nazionali realizzata dalla pubblicita\u300 on line del gioco d\u2019azzardo offerto sul web. Le iniziative assunte da EGBA, associazione di imprendi- tori del gioco autorizzati ad operare nella U.E., che ha pubblicato un Codice di condotta ed ha sollecitato la Commissione ad inserire nella nuova Agenda dei consumatori della U.E. una specifica serie di diritti per l\u2019iGaming, indicano che l\u2019area del gioco on line e\u300 la piu\u300 rischiosa e sembrano seguire le linee gia\u300 indicate dalle istituzioni europee fin dalla Risoluzione del 2013: autoregolazione degli operatori e regolazione concertata almeno tra paesi europei.After a brief survey of the guidelines of the European Union and the evolution of Italian regulations on gambling advertising, the essay focuses on the critical issues and risks still present, highlighted by the Authority for Guarantees in Communications (AGCOM) in its \u201cReport to the Government\u201d published immediately after the issue of the \u201cGuidelines on the methods of implementing the ban on advertising contained in art. 9 of the so-called dignity decree\u201d, as if to justify the contents of the latter, which tend to limit the operation of the absolute prohibition introduced by art. 9, d. l. n. 87/2018. With a very recent new act, art. 102, d.l. 14 August 2020, n. 104 (converted by law n. 126-2020), the Italian Government tried to crack down on the circumvention of national regulations carried out by online advertising of gambling offered on the web. The initiatives taken by EGBA (an association of gaming entrepreneurs authorized to operate in the E.U) - which published a Code of Conduct and urged the E.U. Commission to include in the new Consumer Agenda of the E.U. a specific series of rights for i-gaming - confirm that the online gaming area is the most risky and seem to follow the lines indicated by the European Institutions since the 2013 Resolution: self-regulation of operators and public regulation concerted at least between European Countries